Page 63 - agnes-grey

of tormenting themselves and me all day long to no pur-
pose), Mrs. Bloomfield sent for me, and calmly told me that
after Midsummer my services would be no longer required.
She assured me that my character and general conduct were
unexceptionable; but the children had made so little im-
provement since my arrival that Mr. Bloomfield and she
felt it their duty to seek some other mode of instruction.
Though superior to most children of their years in abili-
ties, they were decidedly behind them in attainments; their
manners were uncultivated, and their tempers unruly. And
this she attributed to a want of sufficient firmness, and dili-
gent, persevering care on my part.
Unshaken firmness, devoted diligence, unwearied per-
severance, unceasing care, were the very qualifications
on which I had secretly prided myself; and by which I
had hoped in time to overcome all difficulties, and obtain
success at last. I wished to say something in my own justifi-
cation; but in attempting to speak, I felt my voice falter; and
rather than testify any emotion, or suffer the tears to over-
flow that were already gathering in my eyes, I chose to keep
silence, and bear all like a self-convicted culprit.
Thus was I dismissed, and thus I sought my home. Alas!
what would they think of me? unable, after all my boasting,
to keep my place, even for a single year, as governess to three
small children, whose mother was asserted by my own aunt
to be a ‘very nice woman.’ Having been thus weighed in the
balance and found wanting, I need not hope they would be
willing to try me again. And this was an unwelcome thought;
for vexed, harassed, disappointed as I had been, and greatly

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